Improvement in postage



M. K. KELLOGG.

Postage and Revenue Stamp.-

No 77.887. Patented May 12, 1868.

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Letters Patent No. 37,887, dated May 12, 1868.

IMPROVEMENT IN POSTAGE AND REVENUE-STAMPS,

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TO ALL WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

Be it known that I, MINER Klnsounus KELLOGG, of the city of Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invcnteda new and useful Improvement iuPostage and Internal-Revenue Stamps; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and-exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which-. 7

Figure 1 represents a stamp made after the manner of my improvement before it is cancelled.

Figure 2 is a view of the stamp, cancelled. 4

The object of my invention is to secure the United States Treasury from fraud, by preventingthe successful 'use of self-adhesive internal-revenue stamps, as'well as postagmstamps, after they are once-cancelled by any kind of writing-fluid; and also to provide for effectually cancelling postage-stamps without injury to the fragile articles which may be contained in letters or other packages transported by mail.

The nature of my invention consists in printing a stamp with two separate blocks or plates, on each of which is engraved a separate or different design, so made that both designs shall intorweavo in such manner that the lines or figures shall not cross or lie upon each other, and both containing the numerals designating the value of the stamp, and such words or devices as are deemed necessary to indicate clearly its purpose.

One of said dcsigns'is printed in fixed or oil-color, which may .be prepared in the usual manner of making printers ink. The other design is made of a water-color, prepared as follows: Take, of honey, three parts, and

of isinglass, or other suitable animal or vegetable gluten, seven parts, and mix these materials together with hot water, in such quantity as may be desired to make a'vehicle suitable for mixing pigments. With this vehicle any of the well-known pigments may be ground, and an opaque or body color formed, which may be used in the same way as printers ink.

This compound will not be absorbed by nor penetrate paper, but it will' adhere firmly and dry upon its surface, bearing without injury any ordinary amount of handling or friction to which stamps are subjected before they are used, but such color will be quickly removed by the application of water to it.

After a stamp or a check, which is printed with both oil and water-colors, as above described, has'b eeu cancelled by writing uponits face with an ink, the base orsolvent of which is spirit, acid, or water, such ids may be removed by either of these solvents, out at the same time the engraved design, which is printed in watercolor, will also be removed with it; so. that the removal of -.thc writing-ink, the solvent of which is acid or water, necessarily removes the water-color design; and the solvent which will remove writingink, the solvent of which is of an oilynature, will necessarily remove the oil-color design. In any case, one or the other design must be destroyed in' an' attempt to extract the writing-ink with which the stamp was cancelled; and as the two printed designs are of dilierent tints or colors, the removal or defaccuient of either would be instantly detected, and thcsecond use of the stamp thereby frustrated.

The advantages of my improvement over stamps hitherto made are as follows: It is impossible to remove the written cancellation without ruining the stamps for further use. It would be found very diificult and expem sive to counterfeit the two designs, and even should this be successfully accomplished, the spurious plates could not be used in reprinting that part of the genuine stamp'destroyed by the removal of the cancelling-ink, except at such great expense of time as to be impracticable andjprofitlcss, because the defaced design can be restored only by reprinting it on one stump at a time, and by hand, a process which would require great dexterity and a skilful eye, and which, if not done with the greatest accuracy, would be detected at a glance, by the absence of that exact correspondence in the compositionof the lines and 'the devices of the two colors which is so marked a feature of the genuine stamps.

When my improved stamp is attached to wood, glass, metal, or other substance impervious to water, it can I be detached only by wetting its upper side, and this will, in most instances, destroy it.

' As the stamps are so readily cancelled by the application of waterhto their printed surfaoes,--it will be seen that the cancellation of postage-stamps can be efi'ected' with great facility 'by employees of post ofices, by

simply passing a moist sponge over the stampsQ I am aware that it is not new to employ, in the printing oi stamps, afugitive and afast color' and therefore I do not' desire to cover tbis featufe btondly. The gist of my. invention consists "in employing fugitive ink or watex-coior, which is'so prepared that itgvill not be absorbed by the paper upon which it is put, and inso disposing this color-in a. design'npun a stam'ptbat it mum: cross the lines or chorac te'rs mode inperlnnnenj v ink, 50 thatwhen the fugitivev color is removed in 'part or entirely, the non-fugitivb v design \vili still indicatethe choi-ccfie: or denomination vof the stamp or check; v i

Having'described my inventiom whdt I claim as new, and desire tcsecuro by LettersPatent, is' L Sci-printing a revenne o postage-stamp-or check requiring cenceilatiom with a non f lgitivo color,. an d 0. 80 with a. fugitive ink or color, composed of 'tbeingredients herein described, that the fugitive cplor shall,

7 lie in the blank places left after printing with the non-fugitive color, substcnti'aliy as described. v

- v MINER K. KELLOGGQ Witnesses: y

JusuH. GALE, .JQHN A. Wnls. 

